Monday, Oct 24 2011

Did the St. Louis Rock n Roll half marathon yesterday. Missed a PR by 9 seconds! Darn. BUT I felt great the entire time. I have never felt that good during a half marathon before. I was pumped all day yesrterday after the race, didn't even feel like I ran 13.1 miles. Time was 02:29:25. I probably could have ran it faster but I was following how my running coach wanted me to run the race. He wanted me to start out slow at 11:45 minute miles and then half way through go 11:11 minute miles.

It was hard the first half to run slower I really had to work at slowing my pace the entire time. My only problem was this girl who I was chatting with before the race ented up asking if she could run with me. I said no problem but informed her of my plan. So she literally stuck to me like glue.....she was running so close to me I was about to go nuts. I did all kinds of movements to get space between us and she never got the hint. I know I should have said something but I just could not think of how to say it nicely. She finally started having problems keeping up around mile 4, asking me what she should do about her side cramps. I suggested she should slow her pace down and take deep breaths. She hung in there until 6 miles and I finally lost her at the 6 mile water stop. Whew.

The Rock n Roll series was so fun. Bands, Cheerleaders and tons of spectators and tons of runners. Never had run with so many people.

I just have to keep in mind that this half was not my end goal and not to stress about no PRing this half. It was just stepping stone to Nov 12th....the full marathon. I have to tell you when the course divided half goes one way and the full goes the other......all I could think was in 3 weeks I will have to go to the FULL side......scares me a little.....BUT tomorrow I will meet face to face with my running coach to talk about the marathon!